The verdict is in for Aliens: Colonial Marines, and it's not pretty. Even having beaten the campaign over a week ago, I'm still in a hazy shock over just how bad it was, even by licensed game standards. Of course, I've made it quite clear in my review just how much I hated it -- what's everybody else been saying?

Colonial Marines seems to have a unifying effect among the videogame press, since most of the biggest voices in game criticism all agree on just how awful it is. Terms like "fan fiction" and "generic" are in almost all the reviews, accompanied by frequent savaging of the awful animations and broken A.I.

In Destructoid's first round-up of reviews around the Web, we've collected some of the most notable summaries from our fellow outlets, including a rather shocking outlier from one particular reviewer who, against the odds, managed to love this thing. How I envy him.

Eurogamer: "Even if it were polished to an acceptable, 2013-standard AAA shine, Colonial Marines would still only be a generic effort coasting on borrowed iconography. Weighed down by so many grindingly obvious mechanical issues, it never even gets off the ground. For a game all about exterminating bugs, it's a fatal irony." [3/10]

IGN: "There are some feelings of nostalgia to be enjoyed, but it soon wears off and all that is left is some bog standard run ‘n’ gun action that brings little of note to the FPS table - and it suffers from a severe lack of optimisation on PS3 and 360. Aliens: Colonial Marines has definitely been crafted with a lot of love for the franchise, it just needed a little more imagination - and a hell of a lot more polish." [4.5/10]

Polygon: "Aliens: Colonial Marines plays like a budget title from early in this console generation. The production values are underwhelming, and there's very little game present. Those things are enough to make Colonial Marines bad. But the infuriating amount of confidence on display as Aliens: Colonial Marines systematically misses the point again and again is what really poisons the experience. The end result feels craven and exploitative of its source material and the fans that will hopefully know better." [3/10]

EGM: "Like most successful license-based games, Aliens: Colonial Marines is much more than a loving homage; it serves as one of the most robust story-driven co-op experiences to date. The concept definitely has room to grow, but as maiden voyages go, Colonial Marines is a clear winner." [9/10]

GameSpot: "The four- to five-hour campaign has no thrust to it; it feels the same from beginning to end, and the finale just drops with a thud. And by being so easy and predictable, the game lets down the license. There's little suspense, nothing to absorb you or spur your curiosity. Colonial Marines is tone-deaf to what makes the Alien franchise what it is--and what makes the best shooters so exciting." [4.5/10]

Penny Arcade Report: "I’m not even mad at the game, I’m disappointed. I love the Aliens series of films, and James Cameron’s take on the material proved that he understood how to make a good sequel. You begin with what the creative individual did before you, you put your own stamp on it, and you make sure you move the franchise forward in a way that makes sense. Colonial Marines feels like fan fiction written by a group of developers trying to figure out how to make their first game, and the fact Colonial Marines is being sold for full price in this condition is unacceptable." [N/A]

PC Gamer: "Neither staged carefully enough to be scary nor dynamic enough to be exciting, it succeeds only where other players are capable of breathing life into it. There are better linear shooters, better asymmetrical multiplayer games, and better Aliens sequels, and your love of the motion tracker and pulse rifle would need to be profound to surmount those obstacles. I really wanted this game to be good: having played it, I still want to play the game it sometimes gestures at being. It’s one to study, maybe – but it isn’t one to bring back." [48/100]

VG247: "For every fleeting, enjoyable segment, there’s an irritating one waiting around the corner to dampen the mood. As a fan of the film I’m personally willing to overlook a handful of issues, but they’re too frequent and blatant to warrant £40-plus for the privilege." [N/A]

CVG: "If you want to experience Aliens as you saw it in the movie, stick to the competitive modes. They do a much better job of recreating its most tense moments, and it makes the xenomorphs seem like a genuinely formidable foe, rather than rubber ducks at a shooting gallery. But even with decent multiplayer, Colonial Marines is still a major disappointment; one that stands in the shadow of Cameron's film classic. Game over, man." [6.2/10]

timeline following:⇓ Aliens: Colonial Marines

Last week, Steam removed Aliens: Colonial Marines and Alien vs. Predator 2010. Speculation arose as to why it happened -- was it because of all the Colonial Marines drama at Gearbox in the past, or is it because of ...more

Sega has released a statement placing the majority of the blame for the misrepresentation of Aliens: Colonial Marines to customers firmly on Gearbox, especially Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. Sega has alleged that Gearbox did i...more

Sega of America has tentatively agreed to pay out $1.25 million to settle a class-action suit brought against it and Gearbox Software that claimed the two companies falsely advertised Aliens: Colonial Marines by using fake ga...more

Last year a class action lawsuit was filed against Sega and Gearbox accusing the companies that the press demo shown at E3 of Aliens: Colonial Marines was not indicative of the final product and was misleading. Gearbox has re...more

In the thrilling conclusion to a rubbish playthrough of a boring campaign, the noble Jim Sterling fights his way through Stasis Interrupted, fighting more Weyland Yutani mercs, having a close encounter with an alien Queen, and giving up on the last bit because it's dumb.
It was going on far too long anyway.more

Lisbeth is dead, and we continue our boring journey through space with ... some other person!
Witness the terror of aliens that stand around waiting to die. Be amazed by Hicks' magic pants! Feel shock at the comprehension of Weyland-Yutani's Danger Ammo!more

Hell yeah, I finally gets a gun! After the crawling and dawdling of the first part of Stasis Interrupted, the next slice of Aliens: Colonial Marines action actually gets some action!
Thanks for all the watching and feedback on part one! People are really digging this, which is great. Expect more!more

I woke up slightly before 5am this morning and thought to myself, "You know what the world needs? Another man with an annoying voice talking to himself while playing videogames on the Internet." So it is that I sold out and ...more

One of the dumbest elements of Aliens: Colonial Marines was the sudden appearance of Corporal Hicks, a move that undid the canon of the movies for no real reason other than the desperate need for a recognizable character.
Hic...more

Aliens: Colonial Marines is getting downloadable campaign content in the near future, with leaked PS3 trophies revealing all. Stasis Interrupted is the name of the DLC, and it'll be part of the Season Pass some people actuall...more

Chalk this up to "it should have been in at launch," but you can now transfer items between characters in Destiny. The process isn't perfect though since it isn't in-game, but you can do it by way of the companion app or Bung...more

Bungie has unloaded patch 1.1.1 into the Destiny world, which has a number of weapon balance adjustments, in addition to a new reputation window, matchmaking for weekly Heroics, and a fix for the dreaded heavy ammo bug. ...more

If you were planning on getting or trying out Battlefield Hardline and happen to have an Xbox One and EA Access, then your monthly payments are about to pay off. Well, kind of.
EA announced that EA Access members will be abl...more